Skip navigation
The NRN 50: Worldly pursuits

The NRN 50: Worldly pursuits

Centuries ago, as traders crossed thousands of miles to secure spices and food products from faraway lands, they nurtured a desire for the exotic that is still strong today.

“Globalization set sail on spice-scented galleys and sailing ships,” says Michael Krondl, a food historian and author of “The Taste of Conquest: The Rise and Fall of the Three Great Cities of Spice.”

Today, the legacy of those explorations lives on in restaurant kitchens, as chefs attempt to attract adventurous diners who are always hungry for the next big thing.

“Just like ice cream—with vanilla, chocolate and strawberry—Asian, Latin and Italian will forever be cornerstones of menus, especially in casual dining,” says Bob Okura, vice president of culinary development and corporate executive chef of The Cheesecake Factory, based in Calabasas Hills, Calif.

But diners’ expectations are rising, he says, challenging chefs to surprise them with new flavors from untapped regions.

Incorporating exotic flavors without alienating diners is a constant balancing act for restaurateurs, but the market for new flavors has been expanding gradually.

Per-capita spice consumption in the United States has more than doubled in the past 30 years, Krondl says, and general interest in new cuisines also is rising.

“Greater exposure to new regions and cultures means that new and exotic foods are being sampled with greater intensity than previous generations,” says a report from London-based Datamonitor, which provides industry analysis and forecasts.

After interviewing 5,000 consumers in 2006 from eight countries, including 1,000 in the United States, Datamonitor found that 41 percent “tried food with new and exotic flavors in the last 12 months.”

The latest spice craze “zoomed up after World War II pretty much everywhere in the developed world,” Krondl says. “It has to do with ethnic influx, increased consumption of food outside of the home and increased use of [heavily seasoned] processed food.”

He adds that international travel affects diner’s palates, but to a lesser degree than other factors.

Ethnic-inspired dishes now are found easily in fast-food restaurants from coast to coast. McDonald’s has recently rolled out a breakfast burrito, and Quiznos’ Baja Chicken Sub is made with both chipotle mayo and fresh cilantro.

“Who would have thought that anywhere you go, you would see an Asian salad at McDonald’s?” Okura asks.

McDonald’s Asian Salad, featuring edamame and sesame-ginger dressing, debuted in 2005.

Though Asian cuisines have become more mainstream in recent years, they still maintain an air of the exotic, Okura says.

“There is so much of it that is still unknown,” he says. “From a chef’s perspective, there are spices and seasonings within the Asian cuisines that are underutilized. There’s also a perceived healthy component to Asian cooking. They see it as a healthier option [than], say, Mexican food.

“Components like wasabi were common and expected in sushi bars. But using wasabi in other ways has limitless applications,” he adds.

For example, this month Cheesecake debuted a wasabi-crusted ahi, which previously tested well in Los Angeles, to more than 130 national locations. It is crusted with wasabi mixed with Japanese bread-crumbs and a bit of butter. It’s then seared and served rare with steamed white rice and vegetables, primarily sautéed edamame and beurre blanc flavored with red miso.

Another Asian element Okura says will captivate customers is yuzu, a type of citrus.

“Yuzu does things that other citrus can’t do,” he says. “Any day now it will hit the wow radar.

At the midtown Manhattan location of Nobu, yuzu sauce flavors fluke sashimi served with red miso and deep-fat-fried garlic chips. The dish quickly became a best seller. The high-end Asian concept has locations in 15 markets in the United States, Asia and Europe.

Latin-inspired dishes have also been successful at The Cheesecake Factory. Among its recent offerings are a chipotle chicken served at Sunday brunch and a huevos rancheros on two cheese quesadillas that just made it to the national menu and “is getting phenomenal responses.”

In the Italian arena, a companywide rollout of classic pasta carbonara received the most consistent positive responses on Cheesecake’s guest surveys, Okura reports.

Zach Calkins, Quiznos Sub’s director of culinary development, says Indian food may see a surge of interest from diners.

“North Africa and the styles of Morocco are really untapped,” he adds.

Lesser-known Asian food, from such areas as Singapore and Malaysia, and high-end French bistro style, soon will be the among the hottest culinary concepts, says chef David Burke. He oversees many restaurants including his home base at davidburke & donatella, an American restaurant in New York.

While promoting native cuisine at david-burke & donatella, Burke’s menu includes curry jelly on a panna cotta dessert, Indian-style breads like poori and naan, and a Moroccan-style glaze over lobster steak.

“People like to try new things these days, much more than they used to, like in the ’80s,” Burke says. “People get bored more easily now.”

Michael Smith, a chef at Beacon restaurant in New York, says guests at the American restaurant order a lot of wood-roasted lamb chop with black olives and lemon.

“It’s what people come back for because it’s a familiar flavor, Mediterranean, but plated in an American way.”

Some diners go so far as to ask if the chef is Greek, he adds.

“Every time we put some type of ethnic dish on the menu it sells,” says Gerry Tice, executive chef of Boston’s Omni Parker House.

Tice and a group of chefs and executives from the Omni hotel chain have spanned the globe in search of such alluring foods. Over the last few years they’ve traveled to Italy, Spain, Chile and Argentina tasting authentic cuisines and bringing temporary menu promotions back to the hotels.

Some dishes were “popular enough that I left those on the menu,” Tice says. Among those coming out of Parker House’s kitchen is Parmesan-crusted filet with peppercorns and Barolo wine reduction, a souvenir from Omni’s Italian excursion.

This year’s promotion from Argentina included two best sellers for Tice: Malbecbraised short rib with fennel whipped potatoes and oven-dried tomato chimichurri, and grilled rib-eye steak with a potato and chorizo cake.

Participating Omni hotels may also offer a corn and duck confit empanada and open-faced rib-eye steak sandwich with blue-cheese crumbs and balsamic.

There are still plenty of global cuisines waiting to be explored, many say.

“It’s tourism on a shoestring because you can experience [a new destination] just by going down the street,” Krondl says.

Hide comments

Comments

  • Allowed HTML tags: <em> <strong> <blockquote> <br> <p>

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Publish